Embracing AI to Ignite Student Engagement?

Professors’ gripes are many, but one stands out: students aren’t doing the readings. Post-COVID, this issue seems especially prevalent. And you know what? I sympathise with the students…

University credentials have become almost mandatory for well-paid jobs, forcing young people into our classrooms. They’re compelled to wade through dry, jargon-laden papers on topics that often seem irrelevant.

So, how can we spunk things up? More importantly, how can we equip students with the skills to harness new technologies?

The Future?

Embracing AI!

OK OK. Put down your pitchforks. I appreciate this is controversial. Some academics, juggling multiple commitments, prefer to maintain the status quo, ignoring the technological revolution happening around us.

But here’s my take: I want to help my students to leverage existing technologies, supercharging their analytical skills and making them more competitive in an era of AI. Plus, mountains of evidence suggest that, when it comes to learning, active engagement trumps passive scrolling. I’m optimistic that by constantly questioning, students can actually enhance their skills, knowledge and analysis.

Reimagining the Classroom

Let me share two examples from my upcoming course on the political economy of international development.

Consensus

At the start of each lecture, students will use Consensus, a search engine for academic papers. We’ll tackle big, unresolved questions like “How did East Asia become Rich?” Immediately, they’ll see the diversity of hypotheses in the empirical literature. Ever the devil’s advocate, I’ll introduce alternative theories – land reform, human capital, timing – sparking debate.

Plutarch said, “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire”. And that’s my ultimate goal: to ignite curiosity through inquiry-based learning.

Maybe Consensus can help?

Claude

Instead of asking students to ‘summarise the readings’, we’ll use Claude, an AI assistant, to analyse papers and explore alternative hypotheses. Students will be encouraged to dig deeper, applying rigorous scrutiny to AI-generated insights.

For instance, we’ll feed Cristóbal Kay's classic paper, “Why East Asia Overtook Latin America: Agrarian Reform, Industrialisation and Development”: into Claude and probe its analysis.

Unsatisfied with brief one liners, I’ll encourage students to inquire more, such as by using Consensus to ask about land reform:

Or the impact of foreign aid:

But here’s the kicker: while Claude may raise intriguing hypotheses, it can also fabricate! I’ll emphasise that for assessments, every empirical claim must be judiciously referenced. So we now need to hunt down the data!

Truthfully, I’ve never tried this before. As you may know, I’ve spent the last year doing research in 8 countries, so this is just a naive ambition! But - like I say when baking - I have every reason for optimism! Hopefully, this approach will teach students to:

1. Harness new technologies

2. Develop curiosity through inquiry-based learning

3. Recognise and scrutinise competing hypotheses.

Let me know what you think, or what you’ve trialled in your own classrooms. This is a brave new world, and as with all things, we learn through experimentation.

But please don’t forward this essay, as Daron will probably unfriend me! (Joke! But really..)

Tech Savvy me

My Syllabus Guide:

I will also provide written guidance to students, in order to provide a level platform:

Related Essays:

• ‘How can professors prevent plagiarism in an world of ChatGPT?’.

Stay tuned for updates to my “Tiny Textbook on the Political Economy of International Development”.

If you have not already devoured it, I strongly recommend Ken Bain’s tremendous new book on how to cultivate deep thinkers and curious minds. Terrific!